Lana Mesić


Tower IX, Ultrachrome print, 118 x 150 cm, 2016


The City Player 01, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


The City Player 02, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 29 x 23,5 cm, 2017


The City Player 03, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 29 x 23,5 cm, 2017


The City Player 04, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


Tower VIII, Ultrachrome print, 118 x 150 cm, 2016


The City Player 05, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


The City Player 06, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 42 x 32 cm, 2017


The City Player 7, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 42 x 32 cm, 2017


The City Player 08, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


The City Player 9, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


Tower VII, Ultrachrome print, 118 x 150 cm, 2016


The City Player 10, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


The City Player 11, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


The City Player 12, Cotton thread on aida fabric, 35,5 x 27,5 cm, 2017


Tower, HD video, loop (duration 1.10 min), 2016


Tower I, Ultrachrome print, 118 x 150 cm, 2016


Tower II, Ultrachrome print, 118 x 150 cm, 2016


Tower III, Ultrachrome print, 118 x 150 cm, 2016


Palmeira encontrada nas margens dos rio (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 80 x 100 cm, 2015


João (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 50 x 62,5 cm, 2015


Mau (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 50 x 62,5 cm, 2015


Fan (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 62,5 x 50 cm, 2015


Arthur (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 50 x 62,5 cm, 2015


Oxóssi (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 80 x 100 cm, 2015


Priestess (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 50 x 62,5 cm, 2015


Melon (Dear Kublai Kahn series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 62,5 x 50 cm, 2015


Fainah and Camille (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 100 x 80 cm, 2014


How much did you forgive? III (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 25 x 20 cm, 2014


Francois (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 62,5 x 50 cm, 2014


Viviane and Jean Pierre I (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 62,5 x 50 cm, 2014


Fainah (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 25 x 20 cm, 2014


Cansilde and Dominique (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 100 x 80 cm, 2014


How much did you forgive? II (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 25 x 20 cm, 2014


Scale II (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 62,5 x 50 cm, 2014


Evasta (Anatomy of forgiveness series), Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, 62,5 x 50 cm, 2014

Arab and his horse, 2011, 55 x 70 cm, Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, framed with museumglass

Living forest, 2012, 70 x 55 cm, Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, framed with museumglass

Mini horse, 2011, 55 x 70 cm, Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, framed with museumglass

Kurent, 2012, 55 x 70 cm, Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, framed with museumglass

Teslacoil, 2013, 70 x 55 cm, Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, framed with museumglass

Gospel, 2013, 70 x 55 cm, Hahnemüle Photo Rag print, framed with museumglass

Croatia born artist Lana Mesić explores the realm of the invisible. Most of her work centers on the exploration of photography as a construct and the boundaries between reality and illusion. She is captivated by things that have no image but also by the innate human desire to visualize these imageless phenomena. She considers the use of photography to do so as a certain kind of alchemy. 

The main departure point of Mesic’s work is the minds constant struggle in dealing with things that do not have an image. She is curious how our mind (subjectively or collectively) fills in these visual gaps.
The way we give shape to these “black holes” – such as: abstract notions on god, quantum physics, emotions and cultural dynamics – says a lot about us. Her practice is a continuous examination on how our environment affects the image-forming of these visual voids and subsequently how the behavior of man is affected by them. She experiments with their characteristic, behavior and aesthetics and consequently with methods to capture them.
 
Recently she wrote a short statement about her The City Players, a series on the global financial market:

“One of the largest global failures in the recent years was the 2008 economic crash. This event was so devastating that the ripples of doubt in regards to the financial industry are still felt today and has changed the face of banking forever.I was curious to find out more about these Wizards of Oz. I wanted to know more about them, how they work, what they feel and how they think about their environment. What ensued was a series of interviews in which I asked small and big questions.

However photography as such has fallen short and to portray the purely photographically wouldn’t give justice to the subject. Cross-stitch technique was used instead. In this form of embroidery x-shaped stitches are used in a raster like pattern in order to form a picture. The relation of time vs value being clearly demonstrated, as the more time the practitioner puts into the work the clearer it becomes. In the case of “Souls, Ties and a Piles of Carrots”, the time given by each individual is transformed into the time I have put in the cross-stitch. Each pixel corresponds to one coloured stitch. The time that each individual “gave” during the interview was used as abase value which I then extrapolated to the timeI was allowed to work on their portrait. This resulted in 12 hand-made portraits of individuals that work in the Financial Industry of London and reflects ideas expressed during the time we have spent together.”

After her graduation from the Master Photography at the AKV|St.Joost in Breda Lana Mesić was long-listed for the Dutch Doc Award. After that she was selected for Winherthur’s Plat(t)form and nominated for the New Talent Photography Award ING and the Harry Pennings Award. She also was a finalist at the Organ Vida Photography Festival in Zagreb. Her successful series Anatomy of Forgiveness traveled to New York, Kigali and Tokyo. She exhibited in Novo Mesto, Beograd, The Hague, Dong Gang and Sao Paolo. In 2015 she won De Kracht van Rotterdam and in 2017 she won the first edition of the Grolsch Unseen Residency. Work of Mesić is part of the collections of Academisch Medisch Centrum Amsterdam, LUMC Leiden and several private collectors.